Asiana Airlines Establishes ESG Committee... "Accelerating Corporate Governance Improvement"

Annual General Meeting Held... Establishment of ESG Committee, Compensation Committee, and Safety Committee
CEO Jeong Seong-gwon: "We Will Strive to Complete the Acquisition and Integration with Korean Air Without Issues"

Jung Sung-kwon, CEO of Asiana Airlines
Photo by Asiana Airlines

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Hyun-seok] Asiana Airlines is accelerating improvements in corporate governance by establishing an ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) Committee.

On the 30th, Asiana Airlines held a shareholders' meeting at its headquarters in Osoe-dong, Gangseo-gu, where it approved amendments to the articles of incorporation to establish new committees. The board of directors resolved to create the ESG Committee, the Compensation Committee, and the Safety Committee. With this, Asiana Airlines' board will consist of five committees, including the existing Audit Committee and the Outside Director Candidate Recommendation Committee.

At this board meeting, the roles of CEO and chairman of the board were separated to establish an independent governance structure for ESG management. The plan is to create genuine ESG management through monitoring and checks and balances.

The newly established ESG Committee is composed of a chairperson and two members, all of whom are outside directors to ensure independence. The ESG Committee's agenda includes ▲ESG management plans and related activities ▲significant risk matters ▲bond issuance matters ▲large-scale internal transactions. The committee has the authority and duty to request corrective actions to ensure that ESG management is properly implemented.

The ESG slogan "Better flight, Better tomorrow" was also finalized. This slogan, which embodies the desire to create a better future through better flights, will be shared with all Asiana employees and customers to demonstrate the company's active commitment to ESG management.

CEO Jung Sung-kwon said in his greeting, "With the separation of the CEO and chairman roles and the establishment of three new committees within the board, the company's governance is expected to improve," adding, "We anticipate that the foundation to maximize shareholder value will become even stronger."

He predicted that the business environment would improve this year. He explained, "Many countries around the world, including South Korea, are expanding quarantine exemption measures for overseas arrivals, and major destination countries such as the United States and the European Union (EU) are actively easing quarantine regulations," adding, "We expect the company's business environment to gradually improve compared to the past two years."

He also pledged to do his best in the ongoing integration process. CEO Jung stated, "We promise to make every effort to ensure that the acquisition and integration procedures with Korean Air, which are currently underway, are completed without any setbacks," emphasizing, "We will thoroughly prepare the necessary preemptive measures so that the expected normalization of passenger demand in the post-COVID-19 era can directly lead to improved company performance."

Meanwhile, Asiana Airlines has been preparing for full-scale ESG management since establishing an ESG Task Force (TF) in 2021. The company has focused on building company-wide consensus by holding ESG briefings for employees, developing upcycled products using discarded uniforms, and conducting an ESG slogan contest. In February, Asiana became the first in the industry to establish an ESG Management Team responsible for overseeing ESG tasks, laying the foundation for the ESG Committee to fulfill its role effectively.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.